Religious Landscape in Post-revolutionary Russia: The Case of Ekaterinburg
Religious Landscape in Post-revolutionary Russia: The Case of Ekaterinburg

Summary/Abstract: This article presents preliminary results from the project “Religious Diversity of a Eurasian City: Statistical and Cartographic Analysis.” The project focuses on the evolution of the religious situation in late 19th–early 20th century Ekaterinburg. The research is based on documents found in state and private archives, statistics, and visual materials. We have reconstructed the manner in which different religious denominations formed their institutions in late 19th century Ekaterinburg and how this diversity increased due to mass migration and a relatively tolerant religious policy in the early 20th century. The paper argues that religious institutions played important roles in advancing the civil society in Russia, as most of them promoted non-governmental forms of socialization, education, and charity. The decade after the Revolution, often called “the Golden Age” of Protestantism in Russia, ended with the Soviet state’s socialist modernization and atheist policy. That resulted in the destruction of the city’s religious landscape. All the changes manifested in this religious landscape can be presented as a text, which can be “read” and interpreted.

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